[MUSIC] RULER makes our school a better place. [MUSIC] >> I feel that RULER has helped me because I'm able to show who I really am. [MUSIC] >> I think after having RULER come in, I've grown so confident and just like what I've always seen myself to be. [MUSIC] >> RULER asserts that all emotions matter. All emotions. It's the full range of emotions that makes us human, and it's the full range of emotions that helps us to get through life. [MUSIC] RULER is a systemic approach to social emotional learning. We want to give school districts the opportunity to build a common language for social emotional learning. >> You need a feeling or else you can't cooperate, you can't communicate and you can't really do anything. If you were mad, you can't talk about being mad and be calmer. >> Too many kids are holding it all in and we're seeing a rise in anxiety and stress in children that doesn't need to be there. >> They're really thinking about cyber bullying and body shaming, as opposed to academics. >> If we are all working together on our social emotional language, we are making the school a safer, more caring, and joyful place to be for all children. >> When I come into school, everybody is just so welcoming and I feel that I can trust everybody and let them know what's going on, and they'll be supportive of that. >> Research shows that kids who go through this kind of training are less stressed. They do have less depression. >> Going back and looking at my emotions and being like, what am I feeling right now and how can I regulate this? I think that's a really good thing to be teaching people. >> Students are having better conversations with each other. Discipline incidents have decreased,and students are able to be more creative. It really supports the development of the whole child in every way. >> So try to empathize with the other characters as well. How do you think the other person felt, and how did the other person show and handle their feelings? >> RULER is a set of five key skills that are the underlying skills of emotional intelligence. Recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, regulating emotions. We use a set of anchor tools, tools to help people build greater self-awareness, to build a better emotional vocabulary. >> The tools have helped make our students more aware of their classmates. >> We're trying to give everyone the opportunity to become more emotionally skilled. >> We built a school-wide charter together. The whole school did it together. >> The most important thing about the charter is you could see how everyone else wants to feel. >> On our charter, some of the words we came up with were relaxed, comfortable, happy, excited. >> We were able to relate to our classmates more because we realized they were feeling the same things as we were. >> Signing the charter united this school. >> We're making this decision to be positive towards each other, to be nice. [MUSIC] >> In classrooms, we've seen students use the Mood Meter to check in and to regulate how they're feeling. >> If you go left to right that's your pleasantness. And then when you go up and down, that's how much energy you have. >> The yellow means your energy's high. The green means you're kind of calm. The blue means when you're sad, you're glum, you're lonely. And red means when you're angry, you're not focused. >> Where are you on the Mood Meter? >> I think I'm on the green. >> Blueish, greenish. >> I'm a mix between the green and yellow. >> I'm on the yellow, because today's a new day. >> To me, the Meta-Moment is that tool that can be applied anywhere and immediately. >> The Meta-Moment is important because it helps me to stay focused on my work. >> Students are using tools like the Meta-Moment so that they can avoid some of those situations that might escalate into something else. >> And now that I know about the Meta-Moment, I could take a deep breath and sit down and it could help. >> The key element of the Meta -Moment is pausing and activating what we call our best selves. >> My best self is me following my goals for the term. >> I am helpful to others. >> Peaceful, happy and relaxed. >> The Blueprint. It's been very helpful with students that are having an ongoing conflict. >> Someone will come down in the red, mad. If you say to him, well, what happened? They'll just still be mad talking about it. So we'll give him the Blueprint and have him just work on it. What happened? How are you feeling? How is the other person feeling? >> You have to understand what people are thinking and going through. So you would have to put yourself in somebody else's shoes. >> I think she felt like she was excluded and that she was left out. >> And when we started doing these activities it helped push me. And it boosted up my confidence and made me feel like I was important. >> RULER begins by training the adults in schools to shift their mindsets around the value and importance of emotions. >> We spent a year working with staff, just teaching the RULER skills and the anchor tools and using it in everything we did with each other. >> Because educators, like kids, come from many different places. And so really getting them to take a look and reflect upon their own practices, what are they doing and how do they resolve the issues that they're feeling within? >> We really are investing in making sure that all of the adults are all embracing this approach so that every student can be successful. >> With this, you're going to be able to teach. >> Our feeling word for today, boys and girls, is focus. >> They're going to be able to receive what you're teaching. The kids are going to be able to learn. >> We also work with families, because we want children and their parents or caretakers, to have the same language. >> It's not just a schoolhouse, it's what's going on at sporting events. What's going on at home when you're sitting around watching the evening news, how are you reacting to the news when your son or daughter is sitting next to you? You need to be aware how your emotion can influence them. There's no doubt that the RULER approach allows for enhanced learning. >> I learn best when I feel happy and focused. >> I think it's really a life skill that they're giving us here. >> We've seen through research and experiences that creating and cultivating supportive, inclusive environments are critical and foundational to the success of every student. [MUSIC] >> This is an embodiment of a whole philosophy of being, and I think it's one in this world today that we need. >> This is an approach that is for everyone. It helps everyone learn strategies to help them manage their lives so they can be healthier, happier and more effective. My real hope is that every school would embed these principles into the way leaders lead, teachers teach, and students learn. [MUSIC]
